City of Cape Town has a skewed outlook on soccer development
LOCAL football and the City of Cape Town have a curious relationship that is about as awkward as a French kiss between two people with braces. It is a delightfully complex love affair that is often made all the more uncomfortable by the Mother City’s insatiable appetite for English football.
It is one of the most fascinating things to watch because after a visiting club has given the city a glimpse of the European game, it is almost inevitable that some disgruntled party will complain about the money spent on the trip even as the visitors are boarding for their flight home. Ditto this year. The aircraft carrying the Crystal Palace and Sporting Lisbon players was still taxiing out to the runway at Cape Town International Airport when a familiar din of discontent began to rumble in the shadow of Table Mountain.
The two clubs had taken part in the Cape Town Cup and it didn't help that the bloody thing bombed spectacularly.
The City splashed R28m on the pre-season tournament in the hope that an event boasting English side Palace, Portuguese outfit Sporting Lisbon, Ajax Cape Town and SuperSport United would inspire a mad rush to the Cape Town Stadium turnstiles.
Alas, it was not to be as only 22,000 souls gave up the comforts of their warm living rooms to attend the four games. But wait, there’s more, as they say in the television advertisement. The whole thing was such a public relations mess that tourism‚ events and marketing director Anton Groenewald fell on his sword a few days ago and quit in the aftermath of the furore surrounding the tournament.
As City officials try to make sense of it all, Cape Town’s lower-tier soccer clubs have decided they are not going to make things any easier.
In the surest sign that no one at City Hall will appear on their Christmas shopping lists this year, these clubs say it is by the grace of the soccer gods that the competition was a dud because they were undermined by the organisers.
Had they been given respect and been consulted in the planning stages, they would have suspended their own programmes and mobilised their supporters to attend.
First division clubs Vasco da Gama and Milano United were more direct in their criticism, saying the R28m spent could have helped fast-track their efforts to win promotion.
Milano technical director Brandon Truter said they’d had running battles with the city for a long time‚ and inviting United, a Pretoria club, to a Cape Town event was another spit in the face. Ay caramba.
The problem is that mayoral committee member for tourism‚ events and economic development Garreth Bloor doesn’t necessarily see things their way.
He insists the city does not make financial contributions to the lower-tier sides‚ hence the decision not to invest the money in first division teams. And so we have something of a Mexican standoff.
Things will get decidedly trickier because the City believes the hosting of these events somehow contributes to the development of South African football.
‘‘The hosting of these events is important for the development of the game, inspiring local talent and interest in sport, marketing the city on a global platform, and a continued injection into the local economy, especially during the Cape’s winter season,” Bloor said. Ahem.
I’m pretty certain there are a lot of local development coaches, players, soccer clubs and academies who will argue against this assertion.
They may well ask how splashing millions on rich European clubs makes a significant input in the development of local players?
They will wonder how a one-off whirlwind visit lays the proper foundation for development when it is a process that takes time and patience. Surely development restricted to photo opportunities and selfies?
We are just as puzzled.